October, 2023 Newsletter

Fine Art Photography

October, 2023

It seems right that Halloween marks the transition from autumn toward winter. Thoughts of spirits drifting through the night air like falling leaves puts summer’s decay into context and lends the darkness more meaning. I welcome opportunities to plumb the psyche.

Halloween Ghoul, Old North End, Burlington, VT

8x9-inch Silver Gelatin Holga Print, 2017

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Death and transformation are recurring themes in my photography. With my very first roll of black-and-white film, I took pictures of the broken gravestones in a small rustic cemetery, days after the destruction caused by the ice storm of January, 1998.

Dead End, Starlight Rd.

8x9-inch Silver Gelatin Holga Print, 2008

My father’s house was the last house on the road, tucked into the woods, about 200 yards from this aging sign–which has since disappeared.

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I am working with the rolls of photographs I made with images of my father set within his own ashes. Below is a Contact Quad with two of those shots over images of his mortal dust on black paper and my old folded map of the upper Cape–where we scattered my dad into the wind and sea last month.

My Father’s Ashes, Contact Quad #2

First Scan, 2023

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I have long been investigating how images relate across the divide of frame lines. In 2009, I exhibited a series of large-scale analog “Triptychs”, alongside the soulful artwork of the late Diane Gabriel at Burlington, Vermont’s Gallery 215.

Uma, Triptych

8x20-inch Silver Gelatin Print, Toned in Selenium, 2009

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One of my side projects is an ongoing series of Diptychs, made from two neighboring frames shot with a $30 plastic wide-angle 35mm film camera, and printed in the darkroom.

Barn Shadows, Barber Farm

5.5x14-inch Silver Gelatin Diptych, 2019

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Having been immersed in creating Contact Grids from rolls of studies of each of my parents’ possessions, I am looking at other rolls with fresh eyes. A new world of possibility is unfolding, as any of my hundreds and hundreds of contact sheets can be scanned and cropped into grids, where re-contextualized sequences spawn unintended visual relationships. Below is a grid from a roll shot at the Cape in late September.

Although, I am selecting sections from the rows of images on the contact sheet, I do not change the order in which they were originally shot…At least, I haven’t yet!

Cape Cod, Contact Quad #1

First Scan, 2023

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Click HERE to view a brief video reel of My Father’s Things, Contact Grid #5 (detail below) set to an excerpt of my song “On the Outside,” with its coincidental connections.

In support of the North Country Animal League, of Stowe, Vermont, I've donated a framed analog Holga print (below) to be auctioned at their Benefit Gala on Saturday, November 4. To bid on the piece and to see all auction items, click HERE!

Tree of Electricity

8x9-inch Silver Gelatin Holga Print, 2021

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

“Wheels” at the Museum of Everyday Life

Glover, Vermont.

My Father’s Things, Contact Quad #13

8x10-inch Archival Inkjet Print, 2023

My photograph (above) is part of the dimensional and varied MOEL exhibition which navigates all things rolling and turning. When you visit this unique museum, be sure to explore the permanent collection–where you can see two analog photographs of my father’s house, from last year’s exhibition, “Coming Clean”.

Thank you to those who purchased prints from last month’s selection!

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THIS MONTH’S PRINTS FOR SALE

One of each of these specially priced, signed and archivally wrapped prints is available, on a first come basis. They can be window matted and/or framed for additional cost. To arrange purchase or to inquire about any images: jordansamdouglas@gmail.com

November Apples

8x9-inch Silver Gelatin Holga Print, 2008

$90

Wasp’s Nest

11x14-inch Silver Gelatin Emulsion on Arches Watercolor Paper, Toned in Sepia, 2006

$225

My Father’s Things, Contact Grid #9

8x10-inch Archival Inkjet Print, 2023

$90

Broken Ambrotype

11x14-inch Silver Gelatin Emulsion on Arches Watercolor Paper, Toned in Sepia, 2016

$225

Ambrotypes were photographs exposed directly onto coated glass, typically backed with black paint or velvet to make the emulsion appear as a positive. This is my re-photographed macro image of a beautiful 1850’s ambrotype that had been made on deep red glass, and that had been dropped and shattered. From my own negative, I printed onto hand-applied emulsion coated cotton watercolor paper.

To see more of my series, “(Re)membering,” click HERE

Light Leaks, Cemetery

8x9-inch Silver Gelatin Holga Print, 2020

$90

IN THE VIEWFINDER…

In the next couple of weeks, I will have a Store page created on my website, where each month’s sale prints will be available for purchase, in addition to prints from the various galleries. I am jazzed to review old contact sheets and discover potential grids. I have several shots from my summer travels to print, as well as more images of objects to be enlarged as single frames and printed in grids. A break from teaching for Thanksgiving week will be filled with darkroom time!

See you next month!

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Contact: jordansamdouglas@gmail.com

jordandouglasphotography.com